All over the media there is horror and consternation in regards to the Bergdahl return. He is being called a traitor and I have seen many calls for the death penalty floating about. You are missing the bigger picture here. First and foremost, the military never classified Bergdahl as a deserter. That makes a huge difference in how the military should behave in trying to find and free him. The military had an obligation to do so. Secondly, the bigger picture seems to be getting missed here. President Obama broke the law in order to get his return. It doesn’t matter what the standing of the soldier is. The law would be broken even if there were not serious questions about Bergdahl’s actions.

Now from the media reports I have read the sequence of events in this “trade” is that a video was made in December of 2013. The White House was made aware of the video the following month. In this very short video (I believe it is under three minutes) it reportedly shows Bergdahl in bad health. In the statements made by the administration, as well as the president himself, the narrative that they are using is that they saw that his health was deteriorating and knew something had to be done. Does that make sense to you?

If his health was so dire why did they wait close to five months to do something about it? If his health was the reason for the “prisoner swap” wouldn’t they have done it in late January or early February? This is one among many questions that must be answered.

Another one of the narratives that the White House is laying out there is the need for absolute secrecy. Everyone knows that there are leaks coming out of Capitol Hill. That can’t be denied. But this is also the same institution that knew about the bin Laden raid months in advance. Nothing of that leaked. One would like to think that members of congress take national security seriously. There are many who look at Bergdahl as a traitor, some of those people are members of Capitol Hill. But that doesn’t mean that they would voluntarily risk the life of that man by leaking the information. This is just a ginned up excuse that the administration is floating to direct attention away from the fact that he has clearly broken the law. A law, I might add, that he signed. It isn’t like he wasn’t aware that the law existed. It seems like the touted Constitutional law professor has left those ideals behind.

This administration has emboldened the Taliban to take additional Americans hostages. Not to mention many other rogue nations across the world such as North Korea, Iran, and a whole host of others. We are now known for negotiating with terrorists. We have crossed that line and there will be no going back.

Conservatives need to do themselves a favor and let the military justice system do what needs to be done and let them handle Bergdahl, we have much bigger fish to fry.

Impeachment must be discussed in this context. I have never called for that before during the Obama administration because I don’t think incompetence is grounds for impeachment. But this is a situation where multiple laws were broken, our national security has been endangered, and our troops all over the world have had a target put on their backs forever more. That should not be allowed to stand. This is the fight we should be waging. Bergdahl is only a small cog in the wheel. Let the Department of Defense handle him.

Jonah Goldberg makes a modest proposal (I’ll let you read it), and this good point:

Forget being a throwback to the Confederacy; the sanctimony choir cries out that Arizona has rematerialized as 1940 Berlin, albeit with a drier climate. Ironic, since the requirement that legal immigrants carry their “papers” at all times was signed into law by FDR that very year.

One of the principles that keeps America unique is the rule of law–no man is above or below it. That means you have to enforce the law–or you encourage a nation of scofflaws. Laws shouldn’t be onerous or they face repeal.

It really bothers me when one is called a racist for applauding any attempt to make sure that people are here legally. When I visit a foreign country, I carry a passport, get a visa, and try behave as a good guest to the extent that I can figure out how not to offend the other culture. Although I am very sympathetic to genuine political refugees, I posted an ironic excerpt from Mexico’s ferocious regulations on immigrants to their own country http://artemisretriever.blogspot.com/2010/04/inconsistency-vis-vis-illegals.html